I am trying my hand on a small scale with aquaponics to learn before I expand to a larger system. Right now I have a 29 gallon fish tank. I was given an already established aquarium setup and am trying to get it to cycle. I currently have 3 spinach seedlings and 3 lettuce seedlings in the grow bed. The plants do not appear to be doing well as the lettuce is quiet yellow and the spinach has white spots on the leaves. They also are not growing much at all. A couple of the fish (guppies) have died but not many (3 or 4 in 6 weeks). The system is in my house as I do not have a greenhouse yet. The grow bed has an LED grow-light and the fish tank has a fluorescent light. Both lights are on a timer which runs the lights for about 14 hours a day. Until recently I only had an API pH test kit as getting an API Master Freshwater Kit took some time. During the pH testing all of my readings were at least 7.6. I am not sure exactly how high it was as 7.6 is the limit. I finally got the Master Kit and the initial readings were

pH- 8.5

Ammonia- 0 ppm

Nitrate- 80 ppm

Nitrite- 0 ppm

In my search online I am not finding what I need to do in order to help the system cycle and get the pH down.

With your pH that high your plants probably have an iron deficiency. Iron gets locked out and the plants can't use it without some help. If this is an iron deficiency the new leaves will be turning yellow while the older leaves are usually a darker green. It works this way because iron is not very mobile within the plants and they can't move it to the new leaves. Post up some pics and we can probable tell you a bit more.

For iron problems due to high pH either spray apply iron (which avoids pH lockout in the system water) or use EDDHA iron chelate which works at higher pH's.

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